The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1887-06-15

a Daring and Successful Raid in
Broad Daylight.
one Hundred and Fifty Horses Stolen From
Fergus Bros, of the Judith Basin,--A
Chance for the Boundary Patrol
to Show its Hand.

The following letter received by L. q.
Power & Bro. last Sunday gives full ac-
count of one Of the boldest OF the
MANY bold horse stealing raids that have
occurred in northern Montana for years
mast, 1t now remains to be seen whether
the military, which Gen. Brooke some
time ago announced was effectually
standing guard along our northern from
tier. will capture this band of thieves.
While it is not positively known, il is per-
fectly safe to assume that the raiders are
Blood Indians from across the line.
Whether by Indians or whites, the fact
remains that along the northern frontier
our stockmen are constantly harrassed by
thieves, and whether from one side OF the
line or the other it does not matter. They
have time and again laid their grievances
before every known authority, civil ana
military, and appealed in the strongest
terms for adequate protection. The XIV
Err PRESS has been called on SO often TO
chronicle crimes of this nature that our
readers have become thoroughly sick OF
the business. Only a short time ago our
statements were called in question by the
military commander of this district, who
in an interview with the Independent
complacently informed the public that all
this talk about Indian raids and horse
stealing was greatly exaggerated, and
was circulated by interested parties who
wanted to make money out Of the job;
also, that the northern line was thorough
ly patrolled by his troops and that there
was not the least occasion for alarm. Facts
do not seem to confirm the statements
then offered to our suffering stockmen as
a panacea for all past troubles and losses,
and guarantee against future depreda-
tons.
Our Indian agents, Maj. Field, of the
Belknap, and Maj Baldwin, Of the Black
foot agency, are doing all in their power
to suppress the business. Only few
days ago Mai. Baldwin sent his Indian
police to gather the -stragglcrs to the res
eryation and keep them there to prevent
the possibility of their lending aid to for
eign Indians. Major Field also promptly
arrested a horse stealing party of his In
dams who had been over into Canada
stealing from Canadian Indians, taking
thirty-five head of horses from them and
then sent the thieves to the guard house
AT Fort Assinniboine where they will be
kept until they can be prosecuted just the
same as If they were white thieves.
Our Canadian friends across the line
have invariably done all they could to
promptly arrest their raiding Indians who
have been on this side of the line stealing
stock, and promptly returned property to
the owners in every instance where it
could be found.
If the military arm of our government,
which is we'll represented in this section,
should make one capture of the raiding
Indian thieves, in open field, we will take
great pleasure in publishing the fact to the
world.
Should the Fergus Bros, who are
among our most prosperous and highly
respected stockmen, fail to recover their
animals the loss will be a heavy one to
them. Following is the letter:
Coal BANKS, M. T., June IL, 1887.
T. G. Poager d Bro, Fort Benton, u. r.:
am here in search of our bands OF
horses-mostly mares and colts and three
and four year old geldings, and with
them one Clydesdale and one trotting
stallion. They have usually been kept in
two bands, stallion with each, the two
bands numbering about $50 head, and
branded T on right shoulder. One band
was kept near the mountains ana the
other near the horse ranch. They were
seen by Mr.. Thomas Shea about O'Clock
on the morning OF the 9th inst, being rap
idly driven under tie lash by parties sup
supposed to be Blood Indians. He saw
them stop to fix their saddles, but could
not tell whether they were Indians or
whites. He afterwards saw three more
men and found broken leather strap
with scalloped edges on their trail. AT
that time the first band must have been
driven III or II miles to have reached the
point where he saw them, while the other,
and larger band, had only been driven 4
miles, not having had SO far to travel.
Mr.. Shea Immediately hurried to our
horse ranch at Taffy ridge, but all the
men were out. AS soon as possible ne
found them and gave the alarm. A pur-
suing party was hastily organized and
started in pursuit. came to this point to
use the telegraph wires, but the line is
down. / did not find any trail myself.
At Clagett the pursuing party divided into
three sections and one or the other will
probably find the trail. Please give all
the publicity to this that you can, and al
so notify the agent at Blackfoot agency,
all of which will de duly appreciated by
James Fergus & Sons as we'll as myself.
Respectfully Yours,
ANDREW FERGUS.
----@maMR +&@Mes-s%- -
The Telegraph Line.